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Some of the missing Chibok girls who Boko Haram has held captive for two years were seen in a recently released video footage
Updated : Aug 23, 2016, 01:42 PM IST
After 854 days, some of the parents of the missing Chibok girls saw their daughters for the first time in a recent video released by Boko Haram after they were taken by the militant group on April 14, 2014.
A still image from a video posted by Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram on social media, on August 14, 2016, shows a masked man talking to dozens of girls the group said are school girls kidnapped in the town of Chibok in 2014.
"The video says to the Nigerian government, enough, bring back our girls," Jeff Okoroafor, spokesperson for the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) campaign group told dna. Footage of the girls "means a renewed hope" for the campaign, Okoroafor says, and for the Chibok parents who have always believed they are alive and waiting to be rescued.
@obyezeks with Maida's mother identifying some of the #Chibokgirls in today BOKO HARAM Video . pic.twitter.com/ySeN0Htj0J
— Saleh Shehu Ashaka (@AshakaSaleh) August 14, 2016
After the release of the video, on August 22, the Bring Back Our Girls movement and some of the parents of the abducted girls, along with hundreds of other supporters, marched towards the Presidential Villa in Abuja, demanding action from the federal government to save the girls. However, armed riot policemen blocked access to the road towards the Villa.
"We are yet to see a decisive rescue operational action by the President." said Okoroafor, who feels there is a "complete lack of political will by the present administration" to rescue the girls.
"The video for us in the movement means another source of credible intelligence which the Nigerian government claimed to be lacking," he said.
#BringBackOurGirls Holds #Sitout at the Villa intersection after being stopped by security agencies pic.twitter.com/J1sDvRwbgS
— #BringBackOurGirls (@BBOG_Nigeria) August 22, 2016
Live pictures as #BBOGmarchesToVilla pic.twitter.com/l2LxMpwSuc
— #BringBackOurGirls (@BBOG_Nigeria) August 22, 2016
Prepping up for our March to the Villa #BringBackOurGirlsNOW #NeverToBeForgotten
— Ms Maureen Kabrik (@MKabrik) August 22, 2016
Mr President- "Decide Now pic.twitter.com/qI6FpPI04W
The Fight for the ChibokGirls,is the fight for the soul of Nigeria
— Morocco (@ibrahimu14) August 22, 2016
Mr President decide Now #BBOGmarchesToVilla pic.twitter.com/RvKAgIbt6w
Of the 276 girls who were taken, 57 managed to escape the very day of the abduction. More recently, one of the abducted Chibok girls, Amina Ali Nkeki, escaped Boko Haram on May 18, 2015. She, along with the many other girls who survived the ordeal, have been provided with psychosocial therapy and other forms of reintegration and rehabilitation support to help with their transition back into a normal society.
10 of the girls who managed to escape are now studying in the US, Okoroafor reveals, while a few others are in private schools Nigeria. Okoroafor said his campaign is also calling on the government to activate and operationalise a tool known as the Verification, Authentication and Reunification System (VARS) System— a framework for verifying the identity of a rescued person and taking them through to the final stage of reintegration back into the society.
So proud of our Rebecca,one of d 57 ChibokGirls that escaped out of d 276 initially abducted.God Bless @AishaYesufu pic.twitter.com/v7SuQwtxY4
— Ms Maureen Kabrik (@MKabrik) August 22, 2016
Since the abduction, Okoroafor said he never anticipated standing this long and advocating for the same issue on a daily basis for the 218 girls that still remain captive. "The pains and agony of the Nigerian people and the Chibok girls' parents should and must be felt by the government and make President Buhari do whatever he can to rescue the girls," he said.